Apple AirTags Are Now Being Used to Steal Cars in Canada
Police in Aurora, Ontario identified five separate incidents where thieves have surreptitiously slipped an AirTag on to a “high-end vehicle” with the intent to steal it. The thieves’ technique is to leave the tracker somewhere on a target vehicle, then follow its location in Apple’s Find My app to discover where it’s parked.
When Apple first released AirTags earlier this year, concerns immediately sprung up about nefarious use cases for the covert trackers. Apple responded with a slew of anti-stalking measures, but those are more intended for keeping people safe than cars.
An AirTag away from its owner will sound an alarm, letting anyone nearby know that it’s been left behind, but it can take up to 24 hours for that alarm to go off — more than enough time to nab a car in the dead of night.
Read the article at Jalopnik.
Successful Teams: Superstars Need Not Apply
Today’s vision of teamwork has shifted from a system that revolves around an individual to a system that revolves around all the individuals working together: collective functioning.
Collective functioning is about what can be harnessed and created from the intersections of people’s skills and emotions; it’s the emotions that create a ripple effect that forms a culture.
Teams that share resources, and have flexibility and opportunities for collective learning, still might underachieve if their structure and leadership are wrong. But get those elements right, and the team will flourish. If the value of an organization is based on a combination of each employee’s contributions, then success is determined by the weakest of those employees, not the strongest.
Teammates who collaborate more effectively, in any organization, can outperform those whose individual skills may be superior. The key is to discover who works best with whom, and who brings out the best in others. Teams that recognize the power of collective functioning and have leaders who create environments for those partnerships to flourish reap the benefits.
Read the article at strategy+business.
The New Key to Automotive Success: Put Customer Experience in the Driver’s Seat
Car manufacturers once competed largely on their engineering capabilities: superior driving performance and reliability were their marketing boasts. These qualities still matter, but they are table stakes. The new battleground is customer experience.
In a world of electric, connected, and autonomous vehicles, OEMs face a considerable challenge if they intend to keep pace. They will need to rapidly discover, design, scale, and constantly refine solutions that thrill customers, generate new sources of revenue, and keep costs in check - an approach honed by leading customer-centric companies.
Leadership from the CEO and a chief experience office will be key to establishing the components of a transformation: a new business model, and the ability to scale fast, to amass data at every customer touchpoint, and to measure the customer experience in a manner that reveals precisely how to improve it.
Read the article at McKinsey & Company.
Digital Car Keys Arrive on Pixel 6 and Samsung Galaxy S21
Google has revealed a slew of features and updates for Android 12. The digital car key function that was announced at Google I/O in May is now available on Pixel 6, Pixel 6 Pro and Samsung Galaxy S21 for compatible BMW vehicles in select countries.
You can use your phone to lock and unlock the doors, and start the engine. The feature is likely coming to other vehicles later - Google has been working with other, unnamed automakers on support for digital car keys.
There's now an option to open Android Auto automatically when you connect your device to a compatible car. In addition, the home screen will have an always-on play button, so you can fire up your favorite music with a single tap.
Read the article at Autoblog.
Polestar 3 Electric SUV Previewed, Will be Made in America
Polestar is beginning a rollout of multiple models, and its first preview into the future was the Precept, a concept that will become the Polestar 5. That model is still a few years away, but next year we'll be getting the Polestar 3, the brand's first electric SUV.
The SUV will launch in 2022. It will be built at the Volvo plant in Charleston, S.C., making it the first American-made Polestar.
It will also be the first of three models coming in the next three years, with the next being another SUV called Polestar 4, and the last being the Polestar 5. It's all part of a plan to dramatically increase global sales from the company's expected 29,000 units this year to 290,000 in 2025.
Read the article at Autoblog.
